Amida

Thursday, 19 January 2017

The word 'Nembutsu' is Japanese and is made up of Nen and Butsu. Nen means ‘mindfulness’. Butsu means ‘Buddha’. So nembutsu is mindfulness of Buddha. However, it has come to mean not merely a mental act but also a verbal one. Thus all formulae of refuge in Buddhism are forms of nembutsu. However, nembutsu has come to mean especially mindfulness of the Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha of all acceptance, and this implies a very wide and generic approach to spirituality.

Consequently, the uttering of nembutsu is an exceedingly widespread practice in East Asia. When I was in Vietnam, people could see by my clothes that I was some sort of religious practitioner and one could see by their gestures that they were asking what I was. When I said “Namo Adida Phat” which is the Vietnamese form of nembutsu, all was immediately understood with smiles all round. They knew I was Buddhist. Similarly, if I meet Tibetan Buddhists and they ask what is my practice and I say “Om Ami Dewa Hrih”, or say that I am a devotee of Amitabha, they know exactly what I mean and we are friends straight away. In the West we tend to be much more concerned about sectarian differences because of our unfortunate history. It is nice to let all that go and just enjoy the variety of ways there are of practising. The form of words (Namu Amida Butsu in Japan, Namo Omito Fo in China, and so on) vary from place to place, but the spirit is the same. In English, we generally say Namo Amida Bu, but there are many variants.

Buddhism tells us that that mind is conditioned by its objects and the best object is Buddha so saying the nembutsu in one form or another is very healthy. It is also a community unifier. In our sanghas we say Namo Amida Bu as a way of saying “Hello”, “Goodbye”, “Thank you”, “Gosh”, “Never mind” and so on. It means that in all the little triumphs and disasters of daily life the Buddha is present. Thus, just as fine rain eventually saturates an overcoat, our fearful minds are gradually permeated with a beneficent influence and bit by bit, unconsciously to ourselves, a transformation occurs. When life ends we shall be naturally inclined toward going home to the Buddha Land.

The years 2016 and 2017 may well be seen from the future as a turning point in world politics. There is certainly a sense that the current order is fragmenting in Europe and North America, and that the balance of power in the Far East is shifting. In the Middle East there is still no sight of the end of war, but we can pray that some new arrangement can be found that will bring the killing to an end and start what will be a long process of reconciliation. We can sense what may be passing, but it is not yet clear what is emerging.

How does all this bear upon our faith and practice as Amidists? Buddhism arose at a time when the world was changing. New political powers were rising and society was becoming more money oriented. Into this context Buddha brought the Dharma that gave people a higher vantage point, a perspective that was not dominated by personal needs nor by the quest for power and status. In an increasingly materialistic world he taught sharing, generosity, co-operation and minimalism. Our need for this message has not lessened. The tendencies that he led us away from have grown stronger in the time since he walked the earth and our need of faith in a simpler, purer way of life remains just as important.

Friday, 16 December 2016

TEXT: Thus we know in experience that we are foolish beings of wayward passion.

COMMENTARY:The expression “foolish beings of wayward passion” refers to our bombu nature. As human beings dwelling in samsara we are prone to many errors, both practical and ethical. We are emotionally vulnerable. Our mood can change drastically and abruptly in response to eventualities over which we have no control. We commonly try to protect ourselves from the likelihood of such occurrences but no such protective manoeuvres can ever be totally successful. We can waste a lot of energy trying to achieve an impossible degree of immunity.

When something breaks through our self-protection, we respond from a position of confusion. We feel something is “wrong” - things are not as they “should be”. Furthermore, we often take what happens as reflecting upon our ego ideal. We find ourselves surrounded by evidence that we ourselves are not as we think we should be. We might even say, “I was not myself.”

Typically, we respond to the evidence of our own folly by ignoring, projecting or justifying. In the West we live in cultures that have for two thousand years been dominated by the idea that a “judgement day” awaits, and we feel a compulsion to try to justify ourselves. This often involves projecting blame onto others or simply ignoring the evidence.

The invitation in this passage of text is to change our attitude. If we embrace the evidence, we learn about ourselves and, by extension, all our fellow beings. This is the foundation of true compassion. It is also the necessary step for faith to become possible. Self-justification is the attitude that goes with a belief that one can, by oneself, achieve some kind of perfection. It is a rejection of help. In Pureland, we say that it is precisely for foolish beings of wayward passion that Amitabha opens the doors of his heart. Help is at hand.

Of course, this is a middle path. while the common attitude of self-justification and attempting to gather as much credit for oneself as possible is one extreme, the other is to wallow in self-pity and melodramatically sing of one’s own poverty of talent. This is really just the other side of the same coin. It is also a kind of conceit, a drama played for audience effect. All that is required is that one be more natural.

So why do we say “wayward”? The sense is that passions carry one away. This is the Buddhist sense of samjna. Samjna refers to ordinary day-to-day consciousness. It means trance. Ordinary life flows along from one trance to another. Each thing that catches and arrests one’s attention triggers some kind of internal routine. While our attention is held we become fixated and oblivious to other things that may be going on. This is not a problem in the ordinary little things of life. It is good to concentrate and fix attention on what one is doing. However, the same mechanism can run away with us and lead us into extensive waste of energy or even into activities that undermine our spiritual life. It becomes a kind of blindness or avidya. At the extreme, we speak of addiction and obsession.

We should not let this observation lead us to think that what is required is something dry or distant. When I was lecturing on this topic I was asked is there such a thing as passion that is not wayward. This question helps us to realise that there is passion that is Wayward. That passion is called bodhichitta - the Way-seeking mind. Buddhism, especially in its Pureland forms, is a passionate affair. Loving the Buddha and the Buddha Way we plunge in, entrusting ourselves completely. As it says in another scripture, the Dharma farer is one who is “impassioned for peace, a speaker of words that make for peace.”

There is a warfare raging in the world that, like a grass fire, springs up now here, now there, in this breast and that. People are all at war with themselves, unwilling to be the creatures that they are, projecting their unwillingness onto others and then condemning those others for being as human as themselves. There is another way.

Recognising our bombu nature is liberating. We do not have to wait until we are perfect or until we have decided what is the perfectly best option. We do what we can. We are willing. We trust that it is part of a bigger picture that is beyond our ken. Here right action is a function of faith. Having taken refuge in Buddha we feel ultimately secure, no matter how things turn out in the short run.

This text thus invites us to be open to the evidence of our life that shows us our common humanity. It also shows us the impossibility of really judging others. Of course, being foolish beings, we do judge them, but from studying how unreliable our judgements of ourselves can be we start to realise that our judgements of others are at best extremely provisional. There is so much one cannot know.

Buddhism is often presented as a DIY spirituality, but the belief in our own ability to control our own spiritual destiny is itself an arrogance that blocks the Way. What is required is, rather, an attitude that says, Here i am, just as I am, I’m willing. I am willing to be part of the Buddha’s great vision of love, compassion, joy and peace. My part may be a tiny one, but my bit-part role in the creating of Buddha’s Pure Land is what I have got and is my great treasure.

With this attitude we can work together. We can cooperate without bitterness or condemnation springing up. We are all in the same boat, all all-too-human, and, somehow, mysteriously, that is so wonderful.

In Sandokai it says, “If from the experience of your senses basic truth you do not know, how can you ever find the path?” It also says, “Here born we clutch at things and then compound delusion later on by following ideals.” We already know in experience all that we need in order to participate in the great sangha - we know our own humanity.

Thursday, 04 August 2016

Again, the profound mind can be understood in a broad and a narrower sense. In the broad sense, profound mind means not to be taken in by surface appearance, but to look more deeply. There is here a certain worldly wisdom. Many things in life are not quite what they seem. When we read the newspapers, we gradually become aware that things are often presented with an element of ‘spin’. If the newspaper approves of a certain policy and thirty things have happens as a result of this policy, twenty-nine of which are bad, the newspaper might only report the one good one. If one is not to be hoodwinked one needs to look a little deeper.

This, therefore, is also about avoiding prejudice. We all have a tendency to see what we want to see. If we have decided that a certain group are bad, we only see and report the bad things they do. Hearing that they did something good generates a kind of cognitive dissonance that we find uncomfortable. However, if we have profound mind then we are interested in seeing the whole truth, whether it fits our theory or prejudice or not.

So profound mind means avoiding bias. Bias generally springs from identification. We take sides and this then blinds us. This self-blinding is called avidya in Buddhism.

The Narrow Meaning

If we turn to the narrower sense of the term, it is to realise that it is we ourselves who blind ourselves. The narrow sense of profound mind is the realisation of one’s bombu nature. Bombu means that we are ordinary, fallible, vulnerable and prone to error.

We can acknowledge our bombu nature in general and this is important. We can also try to penetrate into it and see how, specifically, we are bombu. This is much more difficult. It is difficult because we are blind to what it is we are blind to. It is not just that there are something that we do not see and appreciate, it is that we also fail to see that such blindness exists. In ordinary life we put on a mask

in order to present ourselves to other people in a way that will be acceptable to them, will help us avoid getting into trouble, will make people like us and will facilitate all the little interactions of daily life. In order to put on a good performance we really get into this. We convince ourselves that our presented self is how we really are. We tell other people, “I am such and such a sort of person.” Others may or may not be convinced, but we ourselves become convinced. So our biggest prejudice is the one we have about ourselves and the most stringent filter that we operate upon our communication is the one that screens out anything that might disturb or counter-indicate the things that we believe about ourselves.

In Buddhism, we say that the nature of the person is that we are ‘dependently originated’. This means that we depend upon many things. This makes us vulnerable because the things we depend upon may change without permission from us. It makes us fallible because, as things are always changing, things may not go as we plan or foresee. On the other hand, it also means that we are supported by innumerable benefits, far more than we could ever repay. Our dependently originated nature makes us fragile, but also gives cause for limitless gratitude.

Profound mind, therefore is enhanced by reflecting upon this dependency. Thus, there is the auxiliary practice called nei quan or naikan in which one reflects upon what one has received, what troubles one has caused and what one has given in return. This reflection tells us something about our bombu nature.

Thus profound mind tells us about who and what we are while sincere mind orients us to the Buddhas and refuge. Thus the two minds relate to the two parts of the nembutsu. When we say “Namo Amida Bu,” “Namo” refers to the one who calls and “Amida Bu” to the Buddhas to whom we call.

Practice depends upon humility. If one has no humility one learns nothing. Profound mind enables us to see ourselves as we are and this, if genuine, destroys the fascination that we have with our self. When we really see ourselves we become bored with ourselves and our preoccupation falls away.

Tuesday, 02 August 2016

Part One: BackgroundIn this teaching I would like to explain the meaning of the ‘three minds’ 三心 sanjin. The three minds are explained originally in the commentary upon the Contemplation Sutra written by Shan Tao in the seventh century. Shan Tao was the greatest teacher and populariser of Pureland Buddhism in China. He was an erudite, humble and artistic monk and is regarded as a great saint. He painted many icons of the Pure Land of Amida Buddha and these became objects of worship all over China. He also wrote deeply meaningful commentaries upon Buddhist texts. In particular he wrote a commentary upon the Contemplation Sutra.

The Contemplation Sutra is one of the three texts most revered in Pureland Buddhism. The sutra has three parts. The first part is a history that sets the scene, detailing the troubles of Queen Videhi. The second part reveals a vision of the Pure Land as revealed by Buddha to the queen to console her in her troubles and the third part details the nine grades of people who enter such a paradise.

Shan Tao’s commentary advanced what, at the time, seemed a radical interpretation of the third part of the sutra. Until then the nine grades had been taken as a ladder or ascending pathway that the practitioner had to climb in order to reach the highest grade. Shan Tao, however, said that the reason for inclusion of the nine grades in the sutra was to make clear that even those of the lowest grade were not abandoned. They too enter the Pure Land. they too shall ultimately enter nirvana.

Shan Tao lived in the seventh century in China. Honen lived in the eleventh and twelfth centuries in Japan. Honen was deeply concerned to find a path of salvation for all, not merely the highly accomplished. When he read Shan Tao’s commentary he experiences a great revelation. This completely changed his life. In 1175 he ‘descended from the mountain’ and went forth into the world and it is from his teaching in the years that followed until his death in 1212 that Pureland as we know it derives.

Honen always held Shan Tao in great esteem and saw him as an incarnation of Amida Buddha. Honen is often himself seen as an incarnation of Tai Shih Chi who is, in a certain sense, Amida’s right hand assistant.

In his Commentary, Shan Tao explains the meaning of the teaching in various ways and one of the most important is by means of the doctrine of the three minds. The three minds are Utterly Sincere Mind (至誠心) shijoshinProfound Mind (深心) jinshin, andMind that vows to transfer merit (廻向発願心) ekohotsuganshin

Monday, 06 June 2016

QUESTION: I have been at an event this weekend led by a teacher of Tibetan Buddhism. The teacher taught about the four immeasurables, loving kindness, compassion and tonglen meditation. Today she is teaching about lojong mind training. I found some of the meditations very moving. Are these helpful auxiliary practises for Pureland Buddhists or should we solely concentrate on the Nembutal like Honen and Shinran?

SHORT ANSWER: Yes, they can be helpful.

LONG ANSWER: Each school of Buddhism centres its teaching on a particular perspective upon the Dharma, but these are like windows that all look into the one big Dharma room. If one's school is Pureland, then "the nembutsu is a window through which the whole universe of Buddha's teaching can be perceived in all its depth". If one were Zen, then zazen would be the window. If one were Nichiren then the Lotus Sutra would be one's window, and so on. First choose your window! Having chosen nembutsu, then other practices become auxilliary to that. Tonglen is about exchanging self and other and all the mind training of the Tibetan system is about enhancing one's capacity for compassion. In Pureland we do not see such enhanced capacity as itself being a road to enlightenment, we see it as the expression of faith in the world. If one has faith then one wants to be involved in Buddha's Great Work, so all manner of enhanced capacities can be useful.

Monday, 30 May 2016

This is the first of a weekly series of teachings about the chants that have guided my path over the last twenty years and which still sustain me as I work amongst organisations in London. Most of the chants are in the Amida “Nien Fo” collection of chants. Many contain teachings from a variety sources that contain useful reminders of the Buddha’s teachings. Some are the simple repetitive chants that provide a backdrop to my life as a Pureland Buddhist. I start with the one that touched my heart and grabbed me at the beginning of my journey with Amida – “ Namo Amida Bu”.

Twenty something years ago I was rethinking my life and facing my past so that I could move forward in my fifth decade into a more useful and healthy lifestyle. It was painful facing my past, but I was determined; because as I emerged from some years of depression after my parents died I started seeing the world in a new light. I saw the suffering around me and I saw how I needed to do a lot of work on myself to be able to help others. I had been a “drop out” at twenty and so needed to study for a psychology degree in order to do the work I felt called to. I also needed counselling to support me as I faced the past and the defensive habits I had learnt which were borne out of some horrible traumas.

I was fortunate. I was accepted on an Open University degree course, found a good job helping people with alcohol problems and I found a good therapist. But I still lacked faith, in people and religion. However, as my mind opened, I realised I might be wrong about rejecting religion and in looking at religions discovered Buddhism. In therapy, as well as facing my past, I also struggled with my antipathy towards religion. it is not easy for an angry atheist to change their mind. At work I came across Buddhist psychology from reading papers written by David Brazier and in 1993 I was fortunate to be funded to go on one of his courses. Even more fortunately, a couple of years later they funded me to go for more training - a groupwork certificate involving residential courses in Amida Newcastle.

Just in time! My old dangerous habits had started to re-emerge, drinking and pot smoking were helping to mask my pain, and cloud my thinking. In Amida Newcastle I found good friends, students and teachers who helped me face my past and find my way forward into a different life. But still, it was almost too difficult until “NAMO AMIDA BU” grabbed me.

I could not understand “Namo Amida Bu”. Chants were very alien to my experience. But I could feel something. When I heard it chanted something soothed and refreshed me. As I investigated Buddhism I also started to practice and to chant myself. I asked many questions of Dharmavidya when I was at the residential weekends and steadily I became sure that the Buddhist path was for me and stayed over for the Monday meetings. I was interested in all the chanted teachings however coming to know “Namo Amida Bu” was the most important thing of all for me at that time. I carried the chant back with me to Scotland and it helped me get through many difficulties.

How do we “know” Namo Amida Bu”? I think we would, perhaps, all explain it differently. All I can do is share a little of what it means to me. Over the years my appreciation of Namo amida Bu has grown. It is the heart of my practice. From the beginning I have experienced the Namo as this little me calling out to the measureless Buddha. I could deeply understand how living a life without measure is being free and how experiencing a person who does not measure is just wonderful, even when there is not a person standing in front of us, rather an imagination of the perfect Buddha. Since then I have called out in fear and joy, sadness and happiness and all the states of mind that make up this little, foolish person. Above all I call out in gratitude.

As some of you know, eighteen years ago, I gave up my earlier life to devote my life to doing the Buddha’s work and became an Amitarya in the Amida Order. Namo Amida Bu has been with me as I have travelled and worked for the Amida Trust – along the Bush roads of Zambia, facing the graves in Bosnia, the oppression in India and the confusions of life here in the UK. Namo Amida Bu has helped me to speak out again and again, despite my fears, and cry my tears for the foolishness of humanity. And, above all “Namo Amida Bu” has enabled me to voice the joy of being in this beautiful world with good companions and guided by a very special teacher, Dharmavidya.

Thursday, 21 April 2016

Getting On with One AnotherI have a vision of a world in which there is no war and yet neither are there the causes of war which normally seem to mount whenever there is peace. Peace is not just the absence of armed conflict. For this vision to have any chance of realisation, it behoves as many of us as possible to re-examine the way that we are and the way that, refusing to accept the way we are, we project onto others the blame for our suffering.

Humans, generally speaking, are social animals that do not much like being together. Or, we could say, they are crafty animals who like to exploit one another while pretending to only have the highest imaginable motives. You and I, we have these traits within ourselves. We are made that way. We need others, but they make us nervous. They make us nervous because we know that they might turn out to be greedy, aggressive, boring or manipulative, just like ourselves.

Beyond InnocenceOf course, there are a few who remain innocents and drift through life happily in a kind of cloud. it is rather nice that such people exist. The diversity of kinds of people is as delightful as the diversity of flowers in a rich meadow. Nonetheless, simply being innocent and, as it were, blind, is not real spiritual maturity. There is something to be said for “becoming as little children” but it is not enough. Simply to breath and smile is a kind of picture of the innocent life, but making doing so into an injunction is liable to be counter-productive.

Indeed, no approach of the separating right from wrong type is likely to work with real human beings except in rather rare cases.

So my vision depends upon a kind of spiritual maturity. It depends upon knowing who and what we are and realising that, even if we don’t like it, still, in the perspective of the enlightened Buddhas, one is loveable, and, therefore, remarkable as it may seem, so is everybody else.

You Don't Have to Love EverybodyThis does not mean that I am advocating that from now on you love everybody. That would be asking far too much. It is easy to offer unattainable ideals. No, what I am talking about is a vision that is actually capable of changing one’s life. The first step is realising that there are perspectives other than one’s own and that amongst those other perspective there is that of the Buddhas who accept everybody exactly as they are. One does not need to think that one must be Buddha oneself - that may or may not happen and it is better to leave it in the lap of hidden powers. The second step is realising that one is as one is with all one’s quirks, propensity to error, shortage of patience, fragments of pride and smugness, gutter-fulls of self-pity and dread, and all the other stuff that human nature is prone to. Neither of these steps is easy, but the third step is impossible to do by choice or will-power. It is to be touched in one’s heart by the chemistry between the first two. If i truly realise that I am as i am and yet am loved, and so is everybody else, then that realisation is likely to knock the bottom out of one's habitual way of approaching the world.

Alone Yet Not AloneIt is likely to leave one speechless, except, perhaps, for a more or less wordless prayer. If one does find some words they are likely to echo the age old wisdom of all those who have had an “opening” of this kind since the world began and feeling those words spontaneously falling from one's lips may well plunge one into a second layer of catharsis of realising that one is not alone in this.

Think of Shakyamuni Buddha. We say that he was the only Buddha on the planet. Isn’t that a pretty lonely place to be? Answer - no. why not? Because he did not feel alone. He felt he was in the “great lineage”, in communion with all the Buddhas of past, future and present, and assisted by all the great bodhisattvas.

Buddha's VisionWhen a worldly person reads this they will think it is all superstitious nonsense. But the fact is that Shakyamuni Buddha walked this earth and preached the Dharma for fifty years without falling into the pit of self-defeat. That is quite something. My vision is no different. My vision is simply to put Buddha’s wish into practice as best I can.

To put Buddha's vision into practice is not really something that one can do all on one's own. We each have some personal adjustment to make, but it is an adjustment that should bring us together. That’s why I have put effort into cultivating and supporting a sangha. The Buddha’s vision was to have sangha assemblies in many places with inspired people to minister to them and to have a cadre of people who had “left home” who were available to go between and do the Dharma work wherever they were called upon. In our sangha we have these roles. We have practitioners; we have ministers; and we have amitaryas. The word amitarya is made up as amita-arya. Amita is Amitabha, the Buddha of all acceptance. Arya are people who follow the Buddha path. So amitaryas are those who, on the one hand, knit together the life of the sangha and, on the other hand, stir it up.

We should not think that a sangha is just a way of getting comfortable and complacent and we certainly should not think of it as running a successful Dharma business selling popular spirituality to as many people as possible. That would be a distraction. There is a virtually infinite amount to do in this world. Above all there is the task of helping all who have a yen for it to come to spiritual maturity. They will be a leaven. To have a world without war does not depend upon the perfection of every individual. It does not even depend upon the perfection of oneself. Trying to perfect oneself is a red herring. It depends on willingness to do the next thing, whatever it may be, and in doing it, to follow one’s heart rather than one’s fear.

As Much Courage as One HasTo practise, to minister, to go forth - these things all require faith and courage, but it is not actually more faith or more courage than people have already got. It is simply a matter of channeling it. It’s a serious matter. Life is not a soap opera.

So, to cultivate sangha, study oneself and get in touch with basic humanity. Realise the commonality of that. Come together and share. Play a part in the greater scheme. Who knows what we shall find along the way. At least we shall find one another and maybe, if we do that, there will be peace in the world.

Tuesday, 19 April 2016

Q: How is Amida-Shu different from typical Western Buddhism?A: In many ways. The emphasis on other power, on the bombu paradigm, and on the Pure Land all come immediately to mind. Our perception of Buddhism as religion and willingness to deal with questions of faith, grace, salvation and prayer also marks a difference of style.

Q: How do you regard Buddhism in relation to other faiths?A: Different religions are all catering for the fundamentally spiritual nature of humankind. None are perfect. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. We like to find common ground but also to learn from one another. Religions, like people, are bombu. We all have room to go on learning. Conflict between people on religious grounds is a nonsense. What is one fighting over - that one form of love is better than another? Amida-Shu provides a generic form of spirituality that is quite inclusive.

Q: Does this mean that it is easier for Amida-Shu to make common cause with other faiths than with other Buddhists?A: I would not go that far, but there is a grain of truth in it. I think we probably find it easier to operate in inter-faith settings than many Western Buddhists. People who come to Amida-Shu and like it are more likely to be people who have a broadly spiritual outlook than people who have been immersed in Western Buddhism. However, people who have been immersed in Western Buddhism for many years and are now wondering why they are not yet enlightened might well find coming to Amida-Shu a great relief and liberation.

Q: Is Amida-Shu more like Chinese or Japanese Pureland?A: Somewhere between the two. As a broad generalisation, one could say that Japanese Pureland opposes itself to Zen. We do not oppose ourselves to Zen. Chinese Pureland, on the other hand, has, to an extent, become subsummed into Zen. We are not Pureland within Zen, though in some respects, we have some Zen subsummed within our Pureland.

Q: So is Amida-Shu more or less “other-power” than Japanese Pureland?A: We are more fundamentally so. We regard the original message of Shakyamuni and of all Buddhas as being other power. That is the meaning of refuge. Zen, when properly understood, is other power.

Q: Amida-Shu has precepts. Some Japanese Schools do not have precepts. Why is this?A: If people find it helpful to take precepts, then as Buddhist priests we should be willing to give them. Some schools say that they do not have the authority to give precepts, but giving precepts has nothing to do with authority, it is an act of compassion.

Q: What about ordination vows?A: Our vows define a way of life which provides coherence and purpose to our community. They are agreed by the community for the community. All communities need norms. In addition, the vows help individuals to get insight into their own faith and to see when it is strong or weak. Through trying to keep precepts one learns how bombu one is. Ultimately vows and precepts are descriptions of Buddha and so are objects of worship. It is a mistake to see them as a strait jacket. By working with them one becomes aware of the gap between the nature of oneself and the nature of Buddha.

Q: What is Amida-Shu’s attitude to teacher-disciple relations? I have heard that Shinran had no disciples.A: We regard the teacher-disciple relationship as immensely valuable. In this respect we are in agreement with nearly every other school of Buddhism. The idea that Shinran had no disciples is incorrect. It is based upon a single remark of his recorded in a book called Tannisho, but this book was written by one of his disciples, Yuien. It was a rhetorical remark meaning that his disciples are really disciples of Amida. In the same book, Shinran says “I believe only what my venerable teacher taught.”

Q: Why are there two ordination “tracks” in Amida-Shu?A: It evolved that way. Really there are three tracks at least - mitras, ministers and amitaryas. The multi-track system does cater for people with different needs. Shakyamuni seems to have established a system with groups of followers in particular locations, both the faithful and those who ministered to them, and also renunciants who went between. It was a good arrangement for a community that was scattered over a large area. Our system mimics this arrangement, but adapted to modern circumstance.

Q: What is the Amida-Shu attitude to the current fashion for mindfulness?A: Contemporary utilitarin mindfulness is not the same thing as Buddhist mindfulness. The latter is about keeping the Dharma in mind as a basis both for faith and for investigation of one's life. It is good that through this fashion a large number of people have been touched by something distantly related to Buddhism, but there is a lot more to the original.

Q: Why is investigation of one's life important?A: It is the basis of compassion. If we know our own weakness and folly we are much more appreciative of and understanding toward others. Amida-Shu is a bodhisattva sangha. By the grace of Amida we shall all be Buddhas one day and in the meantime we have faith that our lives reflect the Dharma Light for the benefit of all beings. We do not expect to arrive at perfection - we expect to arrive at greater familiarity with the human condition.

I'm an Acharya (a senior teacher) with the Order of Amida Buddha, which is a Pureland Buddhist Order. I'm a minister, teach on-line and hold Pureland Buddhist sangha gatherings in Perth, Scotland. I mainly write about Buddhist matters and share the teachings of the Head of our Order, Dharmavidya David Brazier